1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of printing devices and more particularly to credit card printers for recording identification indicia relating to the card user.
2. Description of the Prior Art
To facilitate the flow of commerce and to reduce the handling of cash, which can be lost or stolen, commercial enterprises, in particular retailing outlets which normally handle many commercial transactions each involving a small amount of cash, have encouraged the use of credit cards. Expanded use of such cards as a merchandising technique serves to reduce the amount of cash handled by the customer and by the store, and to encourage retail purchases by the consumer. As a result, however, credit cards have attained an intrinsic value and, because of imperfect monitoring, losses due to stolen credit cards and fraudulent purchases made therefrom extend to many thousands of dollars a year.
In an attempt to reduce this loss, credit card companies compile and disseminate lists of cards reported to them to have been stolen in the previous week or so; however, such lists normally take a considerable lead time to prepare and disseminate. Because very few of such cards have means for photographic identificaton of the user, ordinarily it is impossible to verify that the user is authorized to use the card. The salesman at the store usually has no way of immediately verifying the identify of the user or of recording a description of the user for identification purposes. It is desirable to have such a description recorded on the business form receipt used with the credit card so that if the card is fraudulently used, a description of the user is available on the receipt. Conventional credit card apparatus used heretofore does not provide sufficient clarity to allow for recording of embossed pictures or thumbprints from embossed identification cards, and hand recording of the information can lead to delay and lost sales.